A veritable glut of art overtakes Portland and the surrounding area this fall. Overlapping biennials, intersecting festivals, and group shows feature some of the best artists practicing in the region, not to mention national and international artists who’ve been brought in to show alongside them. It’s a time to show some hometown pride. Here are 10 shows to start the party.
Yishai Jusidman’s painting “Dachau” (2014) is included in a show of his work at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education as part of Converge 45.Courtesy of Converge 45
“Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship”
An extended opening weekend of the city-wide art festival produced by Converge 45 swooned over Portland for four days at the end of August. Many of the truly exceptional shows and associated events programmed for and around the festival continue through the fall. With very few exceptions, admission is free for all sites. As in previous years, a map created for the initiative provides a handy go-to guide of a good swath of the city’s art venues and organizations that will have a shelf life beyond the end of the festival.
Multiple locations with various closing dates, converge45.org.
“Guided by Our Stars (We Were Never Lost)” (2021), a lithograph created by Lehuauakea during their residency at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts.Collection of the Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, CSP 21-114
Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial
Each year, this arts organization invites between three to six artists – many of whom don’t count printmaking as their primary medium – to collaborate with a master printer at their facility, which sits 10 miles outside of Pendleton on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Since 2006, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art has hosted a biennial to showcase work produced during these two-week residencies. This year’s show of just over 20 prints by a selection of artists who came through the program from 2020 to 2022 was organized by Rebecca Dobkins, the museum’s curator of Indigenous art. She includes haunting work by Emily Arthur; vivid prints by John Hitchcock; prints by Lehuauakea that recollect their Native Hawai’ian heritage; work by collage artist Cory Peeke of La Grande; sharp work that comments on consumerism and colonialism by Fox Spears; and work by Portland based artists Jeremy Okai Davis, Ralph Pugay, and Wendy Red Star.
Through Dec. 2, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700 State St., Salem, Oregon; willamette.edu/arts/hfma or 503-370-6855.
Heather Lee Birdsong’s “A Doubtful Dream” (2021), gouache on hot pressed paper.Courtesy of Heather Lee Birdsong
Heather Lee Birdsong: “Imaginary Shelter”
The sharp angles, stylized curlicues and dusky jewel tones of artist Eyvind Earle’s drawings made 1959′s “Sleeping Beauty” my favorite Disney movie growing up. It was also a favorite of Heather Lee Birdsong. Her solo show of paintings and intaglio prints are from an ongoing series that evokes the same dreamy ambiguity. Planting architectural shapes and structures into landscapes, the work creates windows onto the natural world – sometimes the desert Southwest, where Birdsong was raised, sometimes the tangled nature of the Pacific Northwest where she has lived since 2005.
Through Oct. 1, Carnation Contemporary, 8731 N. Interstate Ave., No. 3; carnationcontemporary.com.
Photographer Shedrich Williames’ “Untitled” (1972), gelatin silver print.Courtesy of Portland Art Museum
“Black Artists of Oregon”
We are lucky to have a practitioner of Intisar Abioto’s generosity working in Oregon. A 2018 Oregon Humanities fellowship started her research into the history of artists of African descent in Oregon. The inquiry has proved fruitful, begetting exhibitions and performances – Abioto has a background in dance – across the state in 2019. “Black Artists of Oregon,” an ambitious exhibition that has been years in the making, includes the work of nearly 70 artists and spans more than a century. Both a revindication and a celebration, the show draws attention to artists who lived and worked unremarked in the state, those who achieved prominence, and a vibrant cadre of contemporary practitioners who are making their mark now.
Sept. 9-March 17, 2024 (closure for construction Nov. 26-Jan. 17, 2024), Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave.; portlandartmuseum.org or 503-226-2811.
Detail of “Microscope,” a work by mixed-media artist Thea Kinner.Courtesy Alliance of Oregon College of Art & Craft Alumni
“The Close Read: OCAC Alumni 2023 Biennial”
While the Oregon College of Art & Craft (OCAC) closed in 2019, its impact continues to reverberate in the Portland art world through its alumni, faculty and an extended community of practicing artists and others involved in local arts organizations. Alumna Jennifer Viviano, the managing director of X Gallery Art & Storage, provides the venue for the second biennial showcasing work of both alumni and those closely affiliated with the school. Curated by Sam Hopple, who adroitly managed OCAC’s galleries from 2016-2019, the group show will feature the work of nearly 30 artists whose associations with the beloved institution span 25 years.
Oct. 7-29, X Gallery & Art Storage, 815 S.E. Grant St.; xgalleryart.com or 971-200-1984.
“Claire De Lune 2023 Editorial,” by Yun Qu of Videmus Omnia.Photo by Bochun Cheng
“CLOTH, Construct, CULTURE: fashion builds a story”
Over the month of October, the city revels in its deeply ingrained craft heritage for Portland TextileX Month, an annual citywide festival started four years ago to celebrate all things textile. Parallax Art Center approached fashion industry analyst and curator Rhonda P. Hill to develop an exhibition about fashion for this year’s festival. The gallery has a mission to raise social and environmental awareness. So, too, Hill and the 10 contemporary designers she chose to showcase. The 50 ensembles selected for the show address current global issues through their concepts, design and construction. Featured designers include Kyle Denman LA, Isabella Diorio, Korina Emmerich (Puyallup), Karen Glass, Alena Kalana, Ruree Lee, Maital Levitan, Maryanne E. Mokoko, Abiola Onabulé, and Yun Qu. Some focus on zero waste and sustainable couture, others recall their cultural heritage in the beautifully crafted, handmade pieces.
Oct. 24, 2023-Jan. 24, 2024, Parallax Art Center, 516 N.W. 14th Ave.; parallaxartcenter.org or 503-286-4959.
“Family Album #13” (2023), a collage by Joe Feddersen.Courtesy of Adams and Ollman
Joe Feddersen
The graphic qualities of Joe Feddersen’s early printmaking work inform his later work, such as his contemporary take on the traditional sally bags used by the tribes of the Columbia Plateau. He also works in ceramic, collage and glass, using the mediums to realize a visual vocabulary that’s a mashup of historical and contemporary symbols and references. His solo show at Adams and Ollman will include new small-scale collages and a new, large-scale glass charm piece, an installation of cascading bands of individual glass fish traps, bikes, trucks, stick figures, canoes, peace signs, airplanes, wayfinding arrows, transmission towers, animals and reptiles. The shadows cast by the abbreviated, linear shapes seem to write another layer of petroglyphs on the wall behind.
Oct. 27-Nov. 25, Adams and Ollman, 418 N.W. Eighth Ave., adamsandollman.com or 503-724-0684.
Lisa Jarrett’s lithograph, “Untitled” (2022) created during her residency at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts.Courtesy of Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts
Lisa Jarrett: “It cut a sky”
Lisa Jarrett will be represented in multiple shows across Portland this fall, including “Black Artists of Oregon” at the Portland Art Museum and “Assembly,” the multi-venue group show convened for Converge 45. She gets a solo turn at Russo Lee Gallery in November. Among the new work she’ll show are pieces created during her three artist’s residencies over the past year: At Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, she worked with a master printer to translate her vision – and her medium, which is generally her own hair or synthetic hair — into three groups of lithographs. At the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, she returned to an ongoing series, “Migration Studies,” to make large-scale, colorful “portraits” composed of objects sourced from beauty supply stores. At the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast, she commandeered a photocopier to scale her New Orleans work for collages that she likens to the quilts of the Underground Railroad, said to contain signs and symbols, encoded messages that guided people to safety.
Nov. 2-Dec. 2, Russo Lee Gallery, 805 N.W. 21st Ave.; russoleegallery.com or 503-226-2754.
Jenine Marsh’s mixed media piece “Wish Fulfillment (blue)” (2023) will be included in the winter group show at ILY2.Courtesy of ILY2
“I am a city of bones”
Launched in 2020, ILY2 (“I love you, too” abbreviated) became one of the newer galleries in the Pearl when it took over the former PDX Contemporary Art space on the Park Blocks this past spring. Updates to the space make it a cool kids’ hangout. Founder Allie Furlotti brings something of a rockstar vibe to the endeavor, which is anchored by the serious art world credentials of veteran gallerist and art advisor Jeanine Jablonski. The gallery wraps its first year in its new location with a group show that meditates on the idea of the body. The intriguing mix of local, national and international artists, who work in a range of media, includes Dylan Beckman, Mona Kowalska, Martin Soto Clement, Timothy Yanick Hunter, Jenine Marsh, and Portland-based artists Corinne Hamilton and Pace Taylor,
Nov. 12-Jan. 13, 2024, ILY2, 925 Flanders St.; ily2online.com.
A 20-foot image mounted on the largest wall at One Grand Gallery will be framed by lights as part of an installation by Leslie Vigeant.Courtesy of One Grand Gallery
Leslie Vigeant: “Cloud X”
The walls of this gallery on a busy corner of East Burnside are often enlivened by unexpected work that runs the gamut of mediums. Curator Luiza Lukova programs the space, which she likened to a blank canvas. Artists are invited to transform it; they aren’t dissuaded from using the floor, walls, ceiling, “wherever.” Portland based artist Leslie Vigeant’s work should jell nicely with this setup. Her interrogative installations use collage, painting and light to create off kilter realities laced with social commentary. Her more recent exploration of textiles has resulted in tufted rugs that incorporate provocative words and phrases. Her solo show at the gallery, a site-specific installation, will commingle many of these elements, including a collage enlarged to be a 20-foot printed panel — for the gallery’s largest wall — framed in by lights.
Nov. 17, 2023-Jan. 2, 2024, One Grand Gallery, 1000 E. Burnside St.; ogpdx.com, @onegrandgallery.
— Briana Miller, for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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